Chapter 836: The God-Slayer

"Old Bai's son, sigh..."

"He's really leaving, will he ever come back?"

"He can't come back, he can't come back; Old Bai first lost his daughter, and today he lost his son too."

Voices rose one after another, yet they did not make him stop his stride.

Behind him, his parents' hoarse, desperate cries rang out, but from beginning to end, he never turned his head.

He knew he was fated never to return.

At this moment, Chen Yan soul-transmigrated into this body, feeling every move this person made, feeling his emotions.

As he walked and walked, tears streamed from his eyes.

Wrapped in a tattered old robe, he trod across the withered and lush grasslands, climbed over perilous mountain peaks, his face covered in dust, chasing the setting sun by day and pillowing his head on cold stars by night, his steps heavy as he still headed toward the distance.

Along the way, he saw villages being encroached upon by Ancient Divine Beasts, and villagers from several villages organized together to go and exterminate the Ancient Divine Beasts.

Naturally, he joined them.

However.

Screech!

When the sharp and mocking hiss rang out, when the murky malice dispersed.

Countless screams, countless fragments of flesh, endless blood.

They failed.

He fled, covered in blood; hundreds of villagers had organized to exterminate one Ancient Divine Beast, yet they were met with true despair.

He fled for his life with the others, finally returning to that village.

In an instant, those wives, children, and husbands waiting at their doorsteps roared in despair.

"Heavens!"

"The children's father..."

Some fainted, some lost all hope of living.

The eyes of those villagers who had fled back were filled with an indelible despair and pain.

Only he stood up.

"We can beat them!"

Covered in blood, he clenched his fists:

"We can definitely beat them!"

With scarlet eyes, his heart filled with endless rage and killing intent, he looked at these villagers sitting on the ground with despair in their eyes and roared:

"If once doesn't work, then twice; if twice doesn't work, then three times!"

His heart was filled with burning blood, wanting to charge into the fray.

He did not want the tragedy of losing his younger sister to repeat itself for others.

He wanted to use his entire life to fulfill this wish.

Yet, he saw pairs of horrified, desperate, and even rage-filled gazes.

"He's crazy, you lunatic, get out!"

"Get out of our village!"

"Kill him, he will attract the Ancient Divine Beasts again, we... we will all die!"

Those people, driven to despair by the Ancient Divine Beasts, raised their butcher knives against him.

He could not believe it and began to flee; by the time he escaped the village, he was already on the verge of death.

He lost all his strength, hid in a mountain cave, and looking at his continuously flowing blood, he let out a bitter laugh.

He was going to die.

He fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke, he saw a boy with a face full of mud taking care of him inside the cave.

The boy was named Xiao Fan.

Just like that, he survived.

"You saved me, from now on you are my brother!" he said, looking at Xiao Fan.

Xiao Fan revealed a brilliant smile.

After his wounds healed, he returned to the village, only to discover something even more desperate.

Everyone was dead.

Their bodies had been gnawed beyond recognition, and the village was filled with pervasive malice.

Grief appeared in his eyes.

"If the human race does not save itself, there is no way out!" He clenched his fists, looking at Xiao Fan beside him:

"Even if it means going to our deaths, do not be slaughtered!"

Xiao Fan looked at him with reverence.

He began his journey again, this time with one more person by his side.

They passed through many villages and hunted Ancient Divine Beasts with many villagers.

But from beginning to end, they never won.

Xiao Fan was somewhat desperate:

"Is it possible that... the Ancient Divine Beasts really cannot be exterminated?"

He stood rigid, his head tilted slightly back, his no-longer-clear eyes looking toward the leaden-gray sky, his lips pressed into a deathly white line.

He did not know, just standing there like that.

He did not know where he should go.

Time passed slowly.

Until the next day.

"I found it!" Xiao Fan said excitedly:

"Some say there are armies that can exterminate Ancient Divine Beasts; they have been victorious!"

A glimmer of hope appeared in his eyes.

He joined the army.

This was an army led by a large nation.

The commander of the army was named Jilie, and she was a woman.

He stood within the vast, surging army, listening to Jilie shouting to the troops.

"Human race, must we truly live forever under the jaws of the Ancient Divine Beasts?"

"Human race, must we truly be regarded as livestock for all eternity?"

"Human race, must strive for self-improvement!"

"We may die, but our children, our descendants, can live on!"

"For our human race!"

"For our human race!"

"For our human race!"

The entire army was in a fervor!

He shouted loudly, his hot blood surging once again this day.

The army had catapults, fire-attack equipment, and battering rams.

Every soldier was clad in iron armor and held a long spear.

Every soldier would undergo rigorous training and be taught various methods to deal with Ancient Divine Beasts.

He and Xiao Fan both believed that they would certainly be able to exterminate the Ancient Divine Beasts of the world.

War arrived quickly.

Reality arrived as well.

In the first war, an army of thirty thousand besieged the Ancient Divine Beasts of a mountain.

He watched helplessly as comrade after comrade died crudely under malice, seeing a ghostly figure reaping the lives of soldiers like a sickle.

This battle was fought for three full days.

Until the very end, with thousands of casualties, they successfully exterminated three Ancient Divine Beasts.

Sorrow and pain appeared in the eyes of each soldier.

Thousands of the human race were traded for the lives of three Ancient Divine Beasts.

This was despairing.

Yet he smiled.

It was the first time he had seen an Ancient Divine Beast die.

That night, he saw that the human race had hope.

Just like that, he participated in battle after battle.

Time hurried by.

It seemed like the blink of an eye.

Ten years later.

He was promoted continuously: Centurion, Chiliarch, Myriarch.

That night, he received a personal audience with Jilie.

"Do you know why I have repeatedly recruited soldiers and repeatedly led the army to slaughter the Ancient Divine Beasts?"

Jilie was not wearing her military uniform; in her red robes, she was exceptionally beautiful.

"I do not know." He shook his head slightly.

"Because I have a dream every day," Jilie began.

"A dream?" he asked in surprise.

"Yes, a dream." Jilie looked at him and poured him tea.

"In that dream, I saw a seed, and after this seed sprouted, it grew into a tree."

A look of confusion appeared in Jilie's eyes; this was the first time he had seen Jilie reveal such an expression.

"I saw that this tree bore two fruits, and inside those fruits..."

Jilie grabbed his hand, her clear eyes meeting his, and a delicate fragrance wafted over.

He was stunned; he felt Jilie's slightly warm breath, which scorched him until his breathing hitched and his fingertips went numb, and he dared not even let his gaze fall in that direction again.

Jilie looked at him earnestly:

"Hidden within those two fruits is the future of the human race."

"It is true," Jilie said excitedly:

"It must be true."

Jilie turned around:

"You are the person I trust most; can you help me?"

He stood up, looked at Jilie's slender back, and bowed respectfully:

"I would rather die than refuse."

Without Jilie, he would still be like this.

Having walked this path all the way, he had long since grown indifferent to life and death.

What he wanted was a future where hope could be seen.

Jilie took a dried rabbit from the cupboard and handed it to him.

A hazy look appeared in Jilie's eyes:

"This is a rabbit I hunted myself; beside the rabbit colony, there was a white bear.

Every time this white bear was hungry, it would come out to hunt the rabbits.

Generation after generation, generation after generation, it has always been this way; I feel sorrow for the rabbits.

But..."

Jilie tore off a rabbit leg and held it out before his mouth.

"But what?" he asked.

"But the rabbits have never been wiped out by the white bear."

Jilie chuckled, and just as he prepared to bite the rabbit leg, she pulled it away, as if teasing him.

He was stunned, momentarily not knowing what he should do.

The next moment, his lips felt a touch of warmth, and Jilie's eyes met his at an unprecedentedly close distance.

A more brutal great war began.

Jilie's campaigns became increasingly frequent, causing the dissatisfaction of the Sovereign.

More and more military guards died, and the new arrivals were simply unable to meet the army's needs.

Even many military guards had already begun to curse Jilie in secret.

Within the imperial court, the voices of dissatisfaction directed at Jilie grew more numerous.

Throughout the entire nation, everyone called Jilie a female demon, saying she would plunge the whole country into disaster.

Yet Jilie did not care about these things.

He could tell that Jilie was becoming increasingly anxious.

It was as if Jilie had sensed something.

Or perhaps, that dream of Jilie's was becoming clearer and clearer.

Xiao Fan was confused and even complained to him about Jilie in private.

He said nothing.

Until one day.

The Sovereign summoned Jilie to enter the palace.

Jilie did not enter the palace; it was he who entered.

That day, he walked into the palace hall carrying a bloody human head.

Before the Sovereign and the full assembly of civil and military officials, he shouted aloud:

"Jilie has already been executed!"

The Sovereign laughed heartily, and the entire court cheered.

Everyone looked at him, their eyes filled with admiration.

Yet he lifted that head and instantly drew a flying blade from the head's mouth, shooting it toward the Sovereign.

That day, the Sovereign was killed by him.

That night, the real Jilie led a great army to trample the royal court and became the new Sovereign.

Everyone glared at him with rage, calling him the true demon.

He said nothing, only looking up at the firmament.

He had never killed the Sovereign for Jilie's sake.

Even Jilie did not know that.

What he wanted was for the human race to never compromise.

If one day Jilie gave up on exterminating the Ancient Divine Beasts, he would exterminate Jilie without the slightest hesitation.

Thus.

The era of conquest arrived.

Jilie adopted an inhumane recruitment policy.

She viewed the entire nation as a breeding machine; she wanted a constant stream of military guards, and then she would send these people to exterminate the Ancient Divine Beasts.

She changed people's ideologies, and she promoted the great cause and policies of exterminating the Ancient Divine Beasts.

To kill one Ancient Divine Beast, the death of one hundred, one thousand, or even ten thousand people was worth it.

Only he knew that Jilie was like this because of the dream Jilie had every day.

He did not care.

He would spend his entire life to wipe out the Ancient Divine Beasts.

The real him had already died on that afternoon when his younger sister left.

Until.

That night.

He was sleeping soundly while holding Jilie, but he heard a commotion outside the palace.

An extremely powerful Ancient Divine Beast had been found!

He listened in shock.

An army of ten thousand was instantly annihilated before a lake; people didn't even see clearly what kind of Ancient Divine Beast it was.

Powerful, absolutely powerful!

He looked at Jilie.

Without prior agreement, he and she both smiled.